Fair - Free Fairs

Free Fairs

Some fairs were free; others charged tolls and impositions. At free fairs, traders, whether natives of the kingdom or foreigners, were allowed to enter the kingdom, and were under royal protection while travelling to and returning from the fair. The traders, their agents, and their goods were exempt from all duties and impositions, tolls and servitudes; merchants going to or coming from the fair could not be arrested, or have their goods stopped.

Such fairs (especially those of the Mediterranean region and some inland regions, particularly Germany), were extremely important in the commerce of Europe. The most famous were those of:

• The Champagne fairs in Champagne and Brie regions of France in the Middle Ages
• The Frankfurt Book Fair remains the most important fair in international publishing, as it has been since at least the 17th century.
• Archangel in Arkhangelsk Oblast), Russia
• Banská Bystrica, Slovakia (Radvanský jarmok)
• Beauclaire, Languedoc, (France)
• Munich, Oktoberfest, (Germany)
• Frankfurt, Frankfurt Book Fair, (Germany)
• Guibray, Normandy, (France)
• Havana (Cuba)
• Plovdiv, (Bulgaria)
• Poznań (Poznań International Fair), (Poland)
• Leipzig (Leipzig Trade Fair), (Germany)
• Lyon, (France)
• Milan, Fiera di Senigaglia
• Rome, Porta Portese
• Novi, in the Milanese region of northern Italy
• Riga, (Latvia)
• St. Germain, at Paris, (France)
• Sweden and Uppsala, the Disting
• Portobelo, (Panama)
• Veracruz, (Mexico)